Best count so far

GH and BG walked Transect 11 on last Wednesday afternoon. We're now only two weeks away from the season's halfway point and to date we've completed seven and missed four of the possible transects. Wednesday's sunny and hot weather provided the best possible conditions for seeing butterflies, and we recorded our best count so far this year with 140 butterflies.
 
This 'high' number was mainly due to the arrival of Meadow Browns: there were none on previous weeks and suddenly we had 86 across all but one of our twelve transect sections. The Common Blues and Small Heaths were also seen in reasonable numbers. We also saw our first Large Skippers but the highlight of the day's counting has to be the single Small Blue found on the flowering Kidney Vetch on Hither Field.

Count details:
86 Meadow Brown
19 Common Blue
17 Small Heath
  7 Speckled Wood
  5 Brimstone
  2 Large Skipper
  1 Brown Argus
  1 Grizzled Skipper
  1 Small Blue
  1 Small Tortoiseshell
 
Summary:
140 butterflies from 10 species.
​Click on butterfly names for more info.

​Survey by Graham H
​and Brian Gardner
​submitted to Butterfly Conservation (UKBMS).  ​
​Report and pics by Brian Gardner. ​
 ​​Click pics to enlarge.

Sorry there are no photos of butterflies this week – they were skittish in the hot sun and didn't pose for snaps.

Close-up of a Plantain flower, Fames Rough

Pyramidal (or possibly a Fragrant) Orchid, Hither Field

Spectacular display of Viper's Bugloss in Fames Rough